Arizona bank employees rushed to help a longtime neighborhood food vendor take shelter as a powerful storm swept through the Phoenix area, pulling him and his cart indoors while fierce winds and hail battered the area. The heartwarming rescue was captured on video.
The incident unfolded last week at a PNC Bank branch during severe weather in the Phoenix area, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Employees noticed the local vendor struggling in the storm and quickly moved to assist him.
Video recorded inside the bank shows an employee helping Hilario Cruz Cruz bring his food cart through the doors as powerful gusts and hail struck outside.
The footage soon spread across social media, earning more than 1 million views on TikTok along with hundreds of thousands of likes.
Hilario Cruz recalled battling powerful winds as bank employees helped bring his food cart inside during a Phoenix storm. (Claudia Marquez; FOX 10 Phoenix)
“With one hand, I held the door against the strong wind, and with my other hand I pulled the cart inside. The young man was doing the same from his side. If I had been somewhere else, maybe they would not have been able to help me like that,” Cruz Cruz told FOX 10 Phoenix through a translator.
Cruz Cruz said the bank employees were familiar customers who had been purchasing food from his cart for years.
He believes that longstanding relationship prompted them to intervene.
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“They said, ‘He’s not going anywhere else. He stays here, and we’re bringing the cart inside.’ I said, ‘It won’t fit,’ but the manager said, ‘I know it will,’” he recalled.
Although Cruz Cruz was soaked during the rescue, he still had to make his way home through fallen trees and branches once the storm ended.
Phoenix food vendor Hilario Cruz Cruz said employees at a nearby PNC Bank helped him escape the severe weather after recognizing him as a longtime neighborhood vendor. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
A week later, Cruz Cruz had returned to Peoria Avenue, where he was once again selling elotes and fresh fruit.
He said business has surged since the rescue video went viral.
“I deeply appreciate my longtime customers. That’s why they didn’t leave me outside,” Cruz Cruz said. “I am profoundly grateful to the bank manager and employees because, thanks to them, nothing bad happened to me.”
PNC Bank employees help a local food vendor bring his cart inside as strong winds and hail sweep across Phoenix, Arizona. (Claudia Marquez)
News Outlet has contacted PNC Bank for additional information.
